"Experts say that migrations from Unix to Linux have slowed down because all the low-hanging fruit has now been picked. Linux growth in the U.S. x86 server market has, over the past six quarters, started to falter and reverse its positive course relative to Windows Server and the market as a whole."More here.

That would be easier to swallow if the ad/article in question wasn't covered in MS ads. I don't think it is so much a conspiracy as it is MS just up to their old tricks of purchasing lip service.

Look at it this way: Who is going to pay for Linux ads? Look, the original poster was correct. You're looking for dirty tricks when, in fact, unbridled over-optimism is the enemy here. People mistakenly thought that growth in the Linux market was coming at the expense of Microsoft; however, in fact, what's happened here is exactly what the article says: Shops running expensive proprietary Unix versions moved to lower-cost Linux distros. When this migration started to dry up, Linux adoption was bound to suffer.

You cant accurately determine the market share by sales of an OS, when you can get that OS for free. What is so difficult to understand about that?

The vast majority of organizations deploying Linux are commercial in nature and obtain their OS preinstalled when they purchase hardware; in addition, those same organizations are getting support contracts at the same time. This is reality. So, in fact while not perfect, hardware deployments track closely to OS market share. You may not like that, but it's true.

Don't get me wrong...it is possible that Linux adoption could be slowing, but trying to convince IT people to take MS's word for it could very well be an exercise in futility.

IT people don't need to take *anyone's* word for it. They know their own needs. Those needs are reflected in these latest sales statistics -- and they show that Linux deployments have reached a saturation point. The only way for them to continue growing is to move into markets which are currently dominated by Windows (CRM, etc).